[Rarebooks] FS: Superb and Important Archive of Thomas Merton Letters & Photo of his Ordination

[Charles Agvent]

 From our new catalog, just posted on our website, containing 119 items 
including archives, juvenilia, letters, signed books, and scarce 
material by or about three American writers: Thomas Merton, John 
Steinbeck, and Thornton Wilder.  http://www.erols.com/agvent

MERTON, Thomas. ARCHIVE OF LETTERS AND A PHOTOGRAPH, A TOTAL OF 15
PIECES,  TO  THE  MOTHER OF ETHEL KENNEDY. 1949  -  1955.  Exceptional
archive  of 15 pieces including 4 TYPED LETTERS SIGNED from Merton  to
his  typist,  Ann Skakel (mother of Ethel Kennedy); a wonderful  TYPED
LETTER  from  Merton  (signed in type) to his friend  Donald  Walsh; 8
retained  TYPED  LETTERS from Skakel to Merton; a TYPED LETTER  SIGNED
from  Walsh  to  Skakel;  and  a  photograph  of  Merton's  ordination
annotated  on  the  verso  by Walsh. Superb  content  throughout  with
Merton's letters, SIGNED as "Father Louis" or "Father M. Louis Merton,
"  containing  much discussion of his work, including  forwarding  the
carbon  copy  of  his manuscript of his new book THE ASCENT  TO  TRUTH
(not  present here).   There are  maybe a dozen or so  holograph words
by Merton in the letters.  Merton's lengthy letter to Walsh  discusses
more  spiritual  matters: "The fact that I get scared of Our Lord  and
have  to  trust  Him  blindly about the present  and  the  future  is,
however,  sufficient  pledge  of what one must expect. So  I  turn  to
jelly  on  the threshold of a terrified love."  The 8" x 10"  original
photograph  of Merton's ordination, possibly unique, contains  Walsh's
detailed  notes  on the verso identifying those in the photograph  and
the  location-- "the Basilica of the Abbey of Our Lady of  Gethsemani,
Trappist,  Ky,  on  Ascension Day, May 26, 1949."  Ann Skakel and  her
husband  George  were killed in an airplane crash not long  after  the
date  of  the  last letter in this archive. Ethel's  devotion  to  her
Catholic  religion can be attributed to the faith of her mother.  Very
Good to Near Fine.                                          $35,000.00

-- 

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CHARLES AGVENT
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